The Bengal Imams’ Association said festivities can wait since people first need to survive. The imams said the lockdown should not be lifted before Eid, which will be observed on May 25.

"Where are you Mamata Banerjee? Covid-19 cases are increasing, no of tests are still low and not giving permission to bring back Bengali migrant labour’s from other states? #BhoyPeyecheMamata," BJP leader Mukul Roy said in a tweet.

In a statement, the hospital said: “He has created a record of sorts in India by being the first patient of COVID-19, to have defeated the virus despite being on ventilator for 38 days.”

The West Bengal government will request the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to increase the additional credit limit to MSMEs to 30% from the existing 10%.

Massive door-to-door surveillance gave us early warning: CM

The ruling party’s response came a day after a central team that had been sent to the state to assess the situation in the state blamed low testing, weak surveillance and tracking, and discrepancies in reporting cases were responsible for a 12.8% mortality rate among COVID-19 patients in the state. This was the highest figure recorded in India, it claimed.

CM Mamata Banerjee Sunday had announced that a special train from Ajmer was arranged to bring back migrant labourers from Rajasthan. Another train, which will bring back migrant workers from Kerala, is scheduled to reach Berhampore in Murshidabad district on Wednesday.

A task force led by state Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha will decide which shops and industries will be allowed to open in green and orange zones.

Taking a dig at Mamata Banerjee, Jagdeep Dhankhar said, “The Chief Minister should regret her statement that ‘political parties are vultures in wait for the dead bodies’ and that journalists ‘must behave’ and take everyone along.”

Senior officials, however, made it clear that complete lockdown would continue in red-zone districts. A district is categorised as a red zone if there are substantial numbers of active cases. The other criteria are the rate at which confirmed cases are doubling, and surveillance feedback.

The mother was kept separate from her baby, but she was allowed to breastfeed him. On May 1, the mother was discharged from the hospital

Meanwhile, the state government has initiated the process of bringing back thousands of migrant labourers back from Rajasthan. They are scheduled to reach Bengal on Tuesday.

A protest was also held outside a ration shop at Lalgola in the same district. Earlier on Friday, similar incidents were reported at Narayanpur area of Kakdwip, Birbhum's Labhpur and Murshidabad’s Jalangi area.

The bulletin did not reveal the total number of active cases in the state. On Thursday, the state government said that the state had recorded a total of 572 active positive cases, 33 deaths and 139 recoveries.

The opinion poll came after BJP leaders accused the state government of hiding facts on the actual number of deaths and positive cases in the state and slammed the administration for the alleged PDS scam.

Referring to the letters, Mamata Banerjee wrote, “Such words and such communications of such content, tenor and tone from a Governor to an elected CM are unprecedented in the annals of Indian constitutional and political history.”

Explaining the arrest, DGP, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dependra Pathak told The Indian Express over the phone, “The person concerned started tweeting that the administration is doing (things) wrong".

The Union government had sent the teams six days ago to review the state’s handling of novel coronavirus in Kolkata and its neighbouring areas, and north Bengal. Kolkata is the worst-affected city in the state.

Denying the allegations, State Food Minister Jyotipriya Mallick said the Central government had provided only 607 metric tonnes of masoor daal (red lentil) against the state’s demand of 15,000 metric tonnes

On Friday, the state government had said that COVID-related deaths in the state numbered 57, of which 18 could be primarily attributed to coronavirus.

Jagdeep Dhankhar’s latest remarks came a day after he sent a five-page letter to Mamata Banerjee, alleging that she was violating the Constitution. The letter was written in response to one by the Chief Minister in which she reminded Dhankhar that he had been “nominated” to his post.

Led by Apurba Chandra, a senior bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defence, the team visited the quarantine centre in Rajarhat and spent nearly an hour there interacting with staff, doctors and patients.

The letter has drawn strong criticism from the state administration, which has claimed that these moves are not in the interest of India’s federal structure.

Earlier in the day, Dhakhar tweeted that the government should cooperated with the two central teams, sent to review the state’s preparedness in tackling coronavirus.